When he passed by the home on Southeast Walnut Street, he saw flames in the front the window. Love "burned" a U-turn and called 9-1-1.

He pounded on the home's door. Smoke alarms sounded from inside.

A woman came around the corner of the residence and told Love the home's occupants were at work, he said. Love could see a table on fire inside the living room, along with some other items, including papers, scattered on top of it.

He grabbed a broom and pulled the burning items through the broken window and asked the woman to get some water.

The woman came back with a garden hose, and Love used it to knock down the fire while he talked to a dispatcher. Within a few minutes, Love estimated, the fire was extinguished.

"It was easy to do in the situation," said Love, who added he worked as a firefighter years ago. "Literally, it was right inside the window."

When Hillsboro Fire & Rescue crews arrived shortly after 9:20 a.m., they found smoke coming from the front window of the two-story residence, located in the 400 block of Walnut Street, said Bruce Montgomery, a Hillsboro fire spokesman. Love was standing on the porch holding the garden hose.

Firefighters entered the smoke-filled home and found that no one was inside, Montgomery said. Crews also found that Love had extinguished the fire.

"It's really not that big of a deal," Love said.

Putting out the fire came naturally, said Love, who works in appliance repair.

Because the fire was out, firefighters set up fans to remove smoke from the residence.

Montgomery said the cause of the fire has not been determined. The front of the home sustained minor damage from fire, and smoke damaged the rest of the residence.